Ray Kasperowicz was running for Congress in the 10th District before running for Congress in the 10th District was cool.

When he announced his candidacy in September 2009, barely anyone outside of Wrentham had heard of state Senator Scott Brown or had any idea that five-term incumbent Bill Delahunt, D-Quincy, would be singing his swan song.

But getting in the race early didn’t translate into immediate recognition, which is something that Kasperowicz, in his first competitive election, has been seeking from day one.

Walking in for an early meeting at his Cohasset office mid-July, Kasperowicz is frustrated. He heard a promo for an upcoming debate between “the two Republican candidates” for the 10th congressional district, Jeff Perry and Joe Malone, dubbed front runners since joining the race in the spring.

A little later, sitting at his desk on the second floor, he takes a call from his son, who’d heard the same thing and was urging his father to make himself known.

“I’ve got to get my ass in there,” Kasperowicz sighed into his cell phone.

As a CPA looking to protect his clients’ finances from a complicated and changing tax code, Kasperowicz is well-positioned to talk about the effect of the economy and higher taxes. He said he understands it from a level that many in Washington don’t or can’t.

“He doesn’t have a friggin’ clue,” Kaperowicz said of the President’s Obama’s understanding of the needs of small business. “It’s out of the realm of his experience.”

That applies to many on Capitol Hill, which he sees as a place that can quickly distance elected leaders from those who sent them there.

Kasperowicz goes back to the advice that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh gave the newly-formed Republican majority after 1994’s mid-term election.

“He told them when you’re here in Washington, don’t look for friends, and he’s absolutely right,” Kasperowicz said. Limbaugh was speaking specifically about the press, but Kasperowicz accepts the advice for most of those in Washington.

At 65, he said he’s looking to go to Washington, serve a few terms, and get out “before I get corrupted.”

“I’m not afraid to be iconoclastic,” Kasperowicz said. “I’m pretty secure in what I think is right or wrong.”

“I wouldn’t have done this at any other time in my life,” the candidate said. “There’s a clear need in my mind for someone from Main Street to go down there.”

He said his friends correct him that it’s really South Main Street, which is where his Cohasset home is located. His CPA business has suffered during the campaign, and some of the work has stacked up in orderly piles on his desk.

“Money isn’t everything. When you’re compelled to do something … you do what you have to do,” Kasperowicz said.

He sees the government’s response to many of the things now confronting the country as reactionary and often overboard for the problem at hand. When added to a Congress with “too much rowdiness” in its decision making, Kasperowicz said, “It’s not harmonious and creates herky-jerky reactions,”

He’d like to “undo the Gordian knots” of Congress’s actions on health care, financial reform and other legislation adding complexity to the lives of American taxpayers.

“Everything they’ve done has to be undone,” Kasperowicz said, acknowledging that it’s not an easy task, “ but I think they can all be de-funded.”

He supports sealing the Mexican border “as best as possible,” but sees that as just part of the solution. “We can’t just get the rhetoric. We need the commitment to make it happen.”

While he’s “not out for hunting them down or chasing them down,” he believes law enforcement should have the ability to look into someone’s immigration status if they commit a crime.

“We have to roll back health care,” Kasperowicz said. “Roll it back completely.”

He also believes that the missing equation in the debate is the individuals receiving the care. “The more we get the patient into the transaction, the better off we’re going to be,” Kasperowicz said. “The more the patient pays, the more aware of it they become.”

The same “roll it back” approach works for finance reform as well.

“I think it does more harm than good,” Kasperowicz said, because it introduces systemic risk. “We’re not fixing things, but we’re going to make things worse.”

He’s not afraid of terming the relationship the “Wall Street-Washington axis.”

On social issues, Kasperowicz is decidedly less concerned.

“I’m kind of live and let live on that,” he said. While he’s not happy with the “general vulgarity” in society, he said, “Society’s going to go largely the way it’s going to go.”

Kasperowicz has stayed mostly away from the headline issues about Perry and Malone’s past, preferring to let them deflate one another.

“What have the people said they want? They want to clean house in Washington… that’s what I’ve been hearing,” he said.

In that vein, Kasperowicz believes that for those looking for a break from career politicians, he offers a good alternative.

“I’m a pure civilian having some strong views,” he said. “I think those things might be a tie breaker.”

He believes that many Americans have “never felt more angst.” He believes that they’re worried about their jobs, the future of the economy and what that means for their children. While many see the Republican party as the party of money and wealth, that’s not his view.

“Money and wealth are not the only things in our lives,” Kasperowicz said.